"Blum argues that a growing tendency to castigate as "racism" everything that goes wrong in the racial domain reduces the term's power to evoke moral outrage. In "I'm Not a Racist, But ...," Blum develops a historically grounded account of "racism" as the deeply morally charged notion it has become. He addresses the question whether people of color can be racist, defines types of racism, and identifies debased and inappropriate usages of the term.

Though racial insensitivity, racial anxiety, racial ignorance, and racial injustice are, in his view, not "racism," they are racial ills that should elicit moral concern."--BOOK JACKET.